Chapter Five: How Things Seem
AN: Sorry, I've got finals and other stuff going on, so updating has been slow.
"Elphie? Elphie?" Boq was too bored to sit in the carriage while Fiyero snored quietly and the girls slept. It was too much. And there was no way he was going to sleep, he'd slept while they'd all been awake.
"Ugh." Elphaba groaned. "What the hell do you want, Boq?"
"Just feel like talking."
"Maybe I don't." Elphaba snapped.
"Come on, please?" Boq begged.
She sighed and sat up, rudely brushing Glinda's head from her shoulder. "What do you want to talk about?"
Glinda rubbed her eyes. "Hey!"
"Sorry." Elphaba said.
Fiyero woke. "Guys, we're almost there."
"What do you mean: almost there? The journey takes days." Elphaba reminded him.
"I know that! I meant we're almost at the hotel we'll be spending the night at. Look." Fiyero gestured out the window.
Elphaba, who was sitting across from Fiyero, looked out the window he'd pointed at. "I see it. Are we sleeping in four seperate rooms or do I have to share a room with her?"
"Elphie!" Glinda whined. "You're my roomie. It's not as if you don't share a room with me every other day."
"A break would be nice." Snipped the green girl.
"Actually," Fiyero hung his head, "when my parents booked this, they thought it'd be four guys..."
"Oh, no," Elphaba sighed.
"Ew!" Glinda chimed in.
"I'll sleep on the floor." Elphaba decided.
"There are only two beds..." Fiyero bit his lip.
"Well, there's no way Glinda'll sleep on the floor." Elphaba pointed out.
"I'll sleep in chairs." Fiyero said.
"But you're a prince. How are you ever going to deal with such conditions?" Elphaba half mocked.
Fiyero, somewhat offended, replied, "I'm not spoiled."
Elphaba raised her eyebrows but shrugged and stared out the window until the carriage stopped.
The floor was carpeted, but crawling with insects. Elphaba tried to pay them no mind, for her home in Munchkinland had not been very sanitary, either. But she was used to the more comfortable living atmosphere of Shiz... the living atmosphere without bugs. "I can't do this." She muttered to herself in the middle of the night and got up, not sure of what she was doing
"And you thought I couldn't handle uncomfortable sleeping." Fiyero commented, for his sleep had been just as unsucessful and he hadn't slept much, either.
Elphaba jumped, previously unaware that anyone had been awake. "Fiyero. Good evening..."
"Good morning, you mean." He nodded towards the clock on the wall. "It's three a.m."
Elphaba sighed heavily. "Can't sleep?"
"Not a wink."
"Same."
Fiyero moved and pulled one of the chairs out from the makeshift bed he'd made. He dragged it next to his. "Come sit, then."
Shivering, Elphaba obeyed. "Why'd you want me along on this silly trip, anyway?" She got right to the point.
"You're my friend, aren't you?" He asked nervously.
"Well, yes. But I wouldn't invite Boq on vacation with me and Boq is my friend."
"Well, if you were allowed to invite anyone, who would you invite?"
"No one."
"That's the difference between you and me, Elphie."
She cast him a suspicious glance. He didn't usually call her by the nickname that Glinda and Boq so casually used. "What?"
"I'm not antisocial." He said daringly.
"Neither am I." Elphaba shot back. "I just... don't like most people."
"What about me?"
That had been a brave question. "What do you mean: what about you? I'm here, aren't I?"
"From what I heard, you took a lot of convincing." Fiyero leaned back in his chair, the back of his head resting on his hands.
"Well, I don't go anywhere without a lot of convincing!" She argued.
"Maybe you should stop being so stiff." Fiyero suggested.
Elphaba was hurt by this comment. "Stiff? I'm not... am I?"
Seeing her sudden vulnerability, he assured her, "Not really. It's just... you seem that way at times."
"At times?"
"Not that often." He reassured her.
She stared at her hands. "Probably quite often."
"What?"
"I'm not a cold person, you know."
He didn't know where she was going with the conversation. "I didn't say you were, Elphie."
"You think I am."
He didn't answer.
"Everyone thinks I am."
He was tempted to tell her that she'd never given anyone reason to think otherwise, but instead he urged her on. "Why do you say that?"
"I'm not stupid, Fiyero."
"I know that." He said truthfully.
"People are cold to me, you know?"
He nodded solemnly.
"So why should I be kind to people who normally reject me?"
"Boq, Glinda and I didn't reject you, did we?"
"Glinda did, initially. Boq only hangs around me because he wants details on Glinda."
"No..."
"Yes!" She argued. "He does. I can tell."
"He may ask a lot of questions about her, but that doesn't mean that's the only reason he's friends with you."
"It seems like it."
"Well, I'd say you seem like a cold person, but since you're telling me otherwise, not everything is what it seems, is it?"
This made her shudder. The boy had a deeper mind than she'd thought he had. "Of course not."
"Then don't assume anything." Fiyero told her.
She couldn't look at him, it was disturbing her how much she was attracted to him when the combination of his looks and his mind converged in her mind. "Fiyero, this is ridiculous. This conversation is absurd."
"Actually, it's quite accurate, if you ask me." Fiyero opined.
"I didn't ask you." She tried to say teasingly, though it came out cruel.
He knew she'd meant otherwise. "Well, that's why I said 'if'."
The lights came on. "Guys, what's going on?" Boq stretched and looked at the two figures talking as his eyes adjusted to the light.
"Couldn't sleep." Both Fiyero and Elphaba said hurriedly.
"Well, can you please keep it down?"
Elphaba guiltily made her way back to the wall she'd been attempting to sleep besides. "Sure, Boq." She didn't look at Fiyero again until the reached the city.